Ole assessed the performance correctly. We couldn’t keep the ball at all and were poor at pressing them. It really didn’t help that Romero hoofed it everytime. I won’t judge him though. I also wouldn’t trust midfielders who constantly lost the ball in dangerous areas.

I still prefer that our manager now recognizes the isssues. Hopefully he has the ability and the right players to solve it.

No complain to Ole and co, it's a fair starting 11, he's giving these players chances.. and many spoilt it. The interesting thing is he made proactive changes early, the subs and second half alteration.

DEF

Romero 8/10 playing long ball after long ball, to Lukaku. Pretty sure we're done with this target man long ball shit, but then again, he's not really known to be good with his feet passing the ball around. Need help but sadly our ball-playing CBs are rested (Victor) and suspended (Bailly). No Matic nor Herrera either to receive deep well. Solid keeping nonetheless.

Young 5/10 struggle shit against freaking Reading, only came to live join attacking in the 80s mins.

Dalot 3/10, the feck is he doing, only bother to start playing in the 83th mins showing his talents. Passenger before that with shit runnings, shit crossings and shit passings. Hiding before that, Cleverly no jutsu.​

MID

Pereira 4/10, at CDM 1st half, rubbbish shit. CM #8 2nd half, same. Passenger. Only bothered to run his lazy ass off starting the 79th mins. Only then showed his talents. Hiding before that, Cleverly no jutsu.

McT 7/10, 1st half as #8 he and Fred are the only ones running receiving passes and pressing people around. 2nd half as holding CDM, did fine. Did only one shit thing when Dalot? lose the ball, McT just let that runners run up the left wing like what the feck is Scott doing... fine if not that. Otherwise, did what all the other players bar some who also did fine, should be doing -- play football, just try to do that.

Fred 6/10, not really that bad. The one who showed the most appetite/hunger but shit decision making. He kept on picking the risk and risk options, it doesn't always success, and the many times it fails, our defence is unsettled. The few times it succeed, other players feck it up. He's a risk, fair sub out, but I think he should stay.​

ATK*goals aside, this trio is a shit combo, lack energy, lack positivity, lack youth, doesn't combine well with each other for some reason, yeah I know Sanchez gave a good assist to Lukaku, that aside, they just don't look for each other. Doesn't fit our new high press system at all. Slow, and for some reason, two of these trio is lazy today. No excuse of fatigue, they don't even play that much previous games. Rashford who played in all previous games gave a better workrate than these two, that says it all.*

Mata 4/10 that winning foul move and score from penalty aside, shit overall all-around performance by Mata, so unexpected. He's still following Mourinho's instructions of not pressing high and stay back defending spaces.... what the hell. Lazy ass today, suppose to lead the young and new midfield but no. Shit leadership.

Sanchez 4/10 waste of money alright. He's suppose to provide the high press and being all-out in this game. But nope, so lazy today. Only contribution is the assist and few good attacking runnings. Suppose to be leading the team today, especially the young and new midfield, but alas shit leadership.

Lukaku 6/10 not bad. Goal again, and runnings, passes here and there. But seriously, our high press is terrible with him leading the front teeth of our attacks. He tried to press of course, credit for trying, bad quality of press play though, did one strong press, otherwise shit presses. Team attacking play with him is fine though, it's against small team, and certainly a lot better if he would choose the runnings behind route instead of target man play. Better system for him this new one. Could have pass to Sanchez for a cleaner scoring chances twice, but then he doesn't really have the vision.
​

SUBS
+ Yeap, Ole got this one spot on. Mata have to go out. Chong improves the energy at the front. Sanchez is also terrible, and Rashford improves the energy up front further. Strangely after that, our midfield and FBs then decides to join in attacks, better attacking by Pereira, Young and Dalot. The changes coincide with their sudden improved performances. Fellaini also provide that stability for the previous shit #8 and FBs to finally attack properly with confidence. Was hoping for Fellaini to give a greater impacts but this will do.

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Overall,
Job done but massively disappointed with the work-rate of many players (not all). I don't mind if they struggle, but where the feck is the positive play?! and high energy?! high press?! play the freaking United way damn it. I highly doubt this is Ole and co's instructions telling these many players to play the boring way.

It was a second string team, with players that aren't long term. We know it, they know it. It could've have easily occurred during Fergies reign. A team of misfits struggling against a lesser side, but still getting through. The positives we can take...Sanchez and Lukaku had a run out. They assisted and scored. Chong came on and suddenly the right hand side opened up. The misfits won. Most of them will probably not be around for long.

Its interesting that the press werent as negative about United's Reading performance as the fans here. More forgiving.

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Because we really weren't that bad. some people in the match thread said we were dominated, that wasnt true at all, it was a fairly even contest with a lot of battles and possession lost in midfield. both had chances, we took ours.

It was a second string team, with players that aren't long term. We know it, they know it. It could've have easily occurred during Fergies reign. A team of misfits struggling against a lesser side, but still getting through. The positives we can take...Sanchez and Lukaku had a run out. They assisted and scored. Chong came on and suddenly the right hand side opened up. The misfits won. Most of them will probably not be around for long.

He should have started over McTominay. I hope Solskjaer doesn't belong to the "Fellaini isn't a United player" school of United supporters, but I fear he may. Hopefully, seeing how our midfield got bullied has convinced him how important Fellaini and his legendary elbows can be.

Mc Tominay the lowest rated player .. holy feck.. the caf is hilarious at times

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I wouldn't have ranked him as the lowest, but he had a bad game. Anytime he was asked to produce a glimmer of football creativity to get himself out of a tight situation, he failed. He failed every single time and looked exactly like the player he is. Bang average. He should not be playing at this level.

I did wonder why Fred was playing in The Ukraine. I also wondered why we were buying a player who was, playing in The Ukraine. I wondered some more when nobody else was showing any interest in him and he didn’t feature once in the Brazilian team at the WC. £50+million, nice!
I realise now of course that he is indeed shite and should be playing in, er The Ukraine or another hotbed of first class football. Another great signing by Mourinho.

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Uh. City wanted him and I don't get this. Lots of great players have come from Ukraine and russia. Vidic and Kanchelskis for two.

Nah, that's not true. Müller wasn't a terrible football player at all, rather a very good one.

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I was being ironic, Synco. Lukaku may not be Mueller, but is far from the terrible footballer that is often claimed on here - his first touch, when scoring yesterday, was excellent and the finish was as calm and clinical as 'Der Bomber'.

Yes, I'm a bit perplexed as to why anyone is unhappy today. Ole did exactly what you'd expect him to do selection-wise, and it proved to be the right decision because we won. Our key players have been rested/protected, our second string have had a game, we go through to the next round.

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Watching United is like tuning into a TV show for some people, stuff like fitness doesn't register, it's all about being entertained.

It's easy to forget that he's only 26 years old and most defenders tend to gather their best form once they hit somewhere between 28-32. I'm not saying Jones will go on to be a Chellini or something but his best years are probably yet to come or at the very least, we could do a lot worse as a back up CB.

I think he's good enough to keep a round for a few years, him and Smalling. We should just sign a WC CB to partner Lindelöf and we're good.

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Fair point. I cannot disagree with any of that.
I just expected Jones to be better than a backup CH but as you say he still has time to develop.

I was being ironic, Synco. Lukaku may not be Mueller, but is far from the terrible footballer that is often claimed on here - his first touch, when scoring yesterday, was excellent and the finish was as calm and clinical as 'Der Bomber'.

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Ah, got you. And agreed, calling Lukaku a terrible footballer is out of order.

A real plus for the team, and the team’s morale, has been the removal of the fear of failure that José induced. Near the end of this game where Marcus bearing down on goal managed to fall ar*e over t*t and slide off the pitch he was able to see the funny side of it. Go back a few weeks and had the exact same incident occurred his reaction would have very different. He would have nervously looked over to the touchline to gauge José reaction. Thus probably leading to another dent in his confidence and a further set back in his career. We now have a good United man leading us.

I criticised mata, fred and jones. It was dysfunctional display as 9 changes were made, but the game was assuring. At no point I felt we were going to draw or lose the game. I was rather relaxed and enjoyed. The feeling I never had since Sir Alex retired.

Good result. Decent run out for the second string. No one really stood up and took their chance (except Darmian maybe).

Tough game to watch - but glad that I did. Ole seems to get the squad management game well. He gave all our players who've been running a lot the last few games a full rest (midfield 3 and Lingard). Rashford got a bit unlucky on that account coz Sanchez pulled up.

He knew we have too much quality for Reading and that would win us the game - which it did.

It wasn't a tactical decision to play slow, disjointed football (like it was with Jose). It was just lack of match sharpness. Will benefit players like Perierra, Fred and Dalot - who will be required to fill in and rotate with our first XI - it we want to keep producing high tempo performances.